Hey ozzyincali, can't wait to see some pics of yours!! All the hard work will be worth it in the end when you are cruising in some nostalgic J tin!!

Motivation is hard to come by sometimes, and budgetary restraints make it even worse.......We just had to pay for my son's school fees for 2010......Enough money to build my engine, buy a clutch, tyres and almost finish the interior.....That would pretty much mean just rego it and done....Oh well. Back to saving up i guess. This is one of the reasons I changed my direction with the build...it has to be AFFORDABLE and ACHEIVABLE. Bring on the progress pics!!

Okay, a mid holiday update.....
Been a busy boy ....need to get some sleep...too much Mazda and not much else! Running quite nice schedule so far. Car should be repaired and hi filled by the time I go back to work.

Hats off to panel beaters!! Couldn’t do that for a living!! Some much time and effort goes into every single detail of a panel to get it right. The passenger guard has taken over 20 hours to complete from go to whoa!! Very happy with it, all seam sealed and coated in underbody deadener. Jst needs the outside hi filled.

Well after much thought and deliberation (or procrastination!!) I decided to unpick the wiper cowl and replace it with the cowl from the donor car. Easy than I thought!!
Getting pretty good with the Mig now!!

Panel lined up nicely, all I had to do was flatten the edge that sits behind the front windscreen back a bit to be level with the channel it sits in. I t got a bit out of shape as I was unpicking it from the donor car.
Trial fitted it, trimmed it etc until it was spot on. Removed it, stripped it, etched underneath it, and refitted with vice grips. Once perfect, simply welded it back in place and re welded bonnet catch plate back to it.

Came up a treat, very happy with it.

Stripped and repaired firewall panels at the back of the engine bay. Etched and ready for hi fill.

Welded up some holes and drilled some fresh ones in the sills for the clips that hold on the lower sill chrome.

Have been working tirelessly on the panel work.
Both guards, front apron, bonnet, boot, roof and both doors are now repaired. All panels are etched bar the roof which i will do when I finish the quarters.

Feels like I am actually getting somewhere with this car now. Only got 1 and a half quarter panels to go, fix the rear panel and tidy up around the front screen and we are ready for Hi fill. Will also seal inside the shell and reseal the undercarriage.

I currently have no fingerprints left on my fingers from sanding..... It’s been a relentless week and a half thus far, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, even though when you stand back after a hard couple of days in the shed the car STILL LOOKS LIKE THIS.....

Next update should have the car in Hi fill and all panels reattached for test fitting and alignment - part one.
Until then..

Holes are drilled for guard mirrors to go on. I love the look of them and you don't see them on RX2's that much.

Going acrylic with the paint. Yeah its a fair bit more work, rubbing down etc, but i like the finish that you can get with a bit of work. I prefer to use acrylic as its a bit more forgiving for an amateur like me

Almost finished the RHS quarter now, then on to the left, then fix the exhaust cutout.
Can't wait to have the car painted now, getting excited White Pinstripes just arrived from Round Rock USA.......

Dreading having to clean out my shed ready for paint... There is that much dust in, on, under, etc everything that it is ridiculous. Will be a full day job that one!!

One thing I have noticed about paint jobs recently is that you MUST let all the primers, HiFill, bog set for several weeks BEFORE giving it a final rub back for paint. Failure to do this will result in sink back which will show up in your paintwork 6 months later. Ive seen it in plenty of cars that look a million dollars when they are freshly painted but have all flaws show through the paint months later.

Ive taken alot of notice recently of peoples work, it would be unacceptable to me to have sanding marks show through the paint several months after having the car painted. Its more common than what you think and seperates the people who think they know what they are doing to the people who know what they are doing !

Acrylic paint systems will most likely take alot longer for all solvents to evaporate than 2 pack which uses a catalyst for hardening. When RestoreMaz did my boot lid he left the polyester for a couple of weeks before blocking.

By the way Ive never really painted, I just ask different people lots of questions for things that I notice and why certain things happen.

You are spot on with the sink back. Seen it plenty of times before. The worst case i saw was on a corvette. The fibreglass had been repaired, hi filled and painted. Looked a million bucks at first, the paint later distorted and cracked. I guess it's worse dealing with a fibreglass body as well.

I plan on Hifilling the car and then leaving it several weeks before blocking it back. This will give me time to play with other bits, polish up all the chrome, modify the air cleaner etc etc etc.........

I have painted a couple of cars before, but have never gone quite this far ie ground up rebuild. Loving the experience though and learning heaps along the way.

In the last week and a half I have made a fair bit of progress. All the chrome was trial fitted to the car to unsure that it fits nice around the windows, especially the front bottom corners where I have cut out rust, treated it and welded in new sections.
Interestingly it appears that Mazda filled these sections from the factory as my donor car had some filler in these areas and from what I can tell it had not been tampered with.

I also welded up some sections around the rear window – due to minor rust. Treated underneath the welds and checked for any other nasties. All good now!!

Both rear quarters are repaired now. Must say they were a bit of a chore – rather large panels with lots of curves. Lucky my faithful panel beating assistant was by my side to keep me sane!!

The Left hand side quarter had a bit of a nasty surprise for me!! There was a patch welded in from a previous repair that was a bit bodgy looking. I thought that I should cut it out and start again as opposed to just cleaning it up and filling over it. Lucky I did, as there was a big rust monster hiding behind it!!

This is where Gypsy’s RX3 thread comes in handy. This guy is a wizz at making tricky curved replacement panels for his car – and shares the “how to with us”. Cheers Gypsy!! If you haven’t seen his thread, I suggest you check it out.
So using some of Gypsy’s methods I refabricated a new inner section, and then a new outer section, treated them and welded them back in place. Job done!!

Putting the bend in

Inside section

For the outer section, I cheated a bit and cut out and modified a section of a front guard off of my brothers SR20 powered Isuzu Rodeo that he crashed through someone’s fence. We put some new guards on it, so I kept the old ones to practice welding on. Came in handy!!

Finished

Welded up some non factory holes in the dash frame, all nice and smooth again.

Exhaust cut out was removed from car and a new one fabbed and welded in. I used a piece of 100mm storm water pipe to get the bend in the replacement and a vice, pliers and patience to get the bottom stepped section the same as original

Work in progress

You may have noticed that most early Mazda’s are never quite straight in this section. It is rare to see an RX2 that is “even” left to right. The left always starts out good and then the rear panel seems to bend in all the way up to the exhaust cut out, giving the car a “lopsided” appearance from the rear.

I have cut up a piece of steel to use as a "straightener" as such to help this panel keep its shape.
Exhaust panel welded in and cleaned up with the “straightener” fitted!!

Got these cool centre cap decals made up. Very happy with them. If I can find a set of genuine caps that I will change them over, but people want too much for them, or they are knackered. These will do fine in the interim.

And got my essential JAF sticker!!

I have my family trained well. For my birthday and Christmas presents they get me Repco vouchers so that I can buy bits for the RX2. Here is Christmas’s vouchers well spent!! I got my retro venetian blind. It’s a bit of an Aussie thing, but I reckon they are way cool!!

Etch time......
Connected up my water trap prior to spraying the etch. Disaster will usually strike if you do not. The last thing that you want in paint is water!! My setup is nothing elaborate, but does the job well. It also has a regulator, which I turn down to about 75 PSI, and then set the regulator on the gun to 45 psi.
My compressor is in another shed behind my main garage and plum
bed up to it with 3 outlets. I hate the noise of air compressors, so this way I can’t hear it!!

The shell is etched now, no hi fill as yet as the Adelaide weather has been a bit humid the last few days.

So this is the car as it stands currently.
I am sure my neighbours have welcomed the relief from me being back at work. No hammering, grinding, air compressors etc!!
All in all a very productive holiday to get all the panel work done. Approx 260 hours poured in here in 3 weeks!! Took 2 days off – had a wedding to go to and my Dad’s 60th, so sleep was a bit of a luxury.

As soon as the car is hi filled I will start bolting all the panel s on to check all the gaps and get the alignments right. Also check up on my panel work skills (or lack there of!!)

I use one of these to filter moisture/ oil from my air line when using the spray gun. It sits inline with your airline and supposedly filters moisture/ oil from the air 100%. Not cheap but if it does its job Im more than happy. A couple of other people recommended it who paint, so far so good but time will tell. I run a long hose from the compressor, have this sit in the middle and then run another hose from the other side to the gun. I still use a moisture trap as well. It uses 2 toilet rolls in series to do the filtering, simple but ingenious. Its also made in Australia

Sounds like an ideal way to 100% ensure that no moisture gets to the gun.

My compressor is mounted in a shed that is a lot lower on my block than my main shed. The airline has to travel vertical to reach the shed, and the line that leads to the point that I use to spray from goes from down low, straight up to the roof, then down and into the trap.

Its made by Amaxi, I bought it from paint mobile. There is also an online paintshop (ebay) that sells them. Ive seen/read all about some elaborate water trap setups, sort of gets you a little paranoid. I think the trick is to place your water traps well away from the compressor to let the moisture condensate so that the various filters can catch the moisture. I suppose the bonus that this filter has over a conventional water trap is that it doesnt matter if the water has condensed because the air is forced through a highly absorbent filter (toilet rolls). Im not an expert, time will tell how good it really is. Theoretically it makes sense to me !

fantastic work! my dogs are no help at all.
Years back i replaced the rear light garnish and beaver panel on my rx2 s2 sedan. Found the same thing on the donated panels rear looked warped. Took ages to get it straight and aligned with clamps and lots of rivets holding it in place. Wish i still had the car.

Car still not Hi-filled, as it has been 38 degrees plus and humid as shit!

Chasing down bits in the meantime...12a timing cover, one tonne clutch, lightened flywheel, odd bits and pieces like clips etc.

Found some minor imperfections that i have missed, small dent in the beaver, fixing little stuff like that. Making up brake lines - pain in the butt they are.....
Got some underbody deadener to seal underneath ready to go.
Wheels and air cleaner assembly blasted....

Spent the last couple of days basically just stuffing around with little bits and peices.
Have tidied up a couple of little bits in the engine bay that I overlooked initially. Easy fix.

Fitted my decals to my 626 wheel centres, and must say that I am rapt with them!!

Fitted up a spare steering box, the brake master and crossmember so I could make the brake lines up. Very fiddly job indeed!! Glad I did this before paint!!
I have thrown out all the original lines that I had and made up all new ones. Not one of them goes where it used to! The splitter that is on the firewall in RX2’s is huge and looks horrid, and I am not a fan of having brake line spaghetti across my firewall.

The front line now tucks down behind the steering box. There is a new 3 way spliter mounted to the chassis rail under the steering box....out of sight....yay!!
The driver’ side line travels forward under the steering box and then bends up the the factory hole.

The passenger side one travels under the steering box, steps down over the chassis rail, runs along the back of the crossmember then up over the chassis rail into the factory hole.

The rear goes straight from the master, through the firewall, makes a hard turn and then runs along the back of the firewall (behind the heater) turns and runs down the passenger floor. There is a connector under the passenger seat. The line then goes through to the back (under the rear seat) and exits the cabin about 300 mm before the section that goes to a flexible hose.
Also re made the diff line and fitted a new splitter.

Much neater looking than factory. I have mounted riv nuts throughout the cabin to secure the lines to so that they don’t “thump” when I brake.

Still haven’t hi filled the car, our weather here has been either too hot or very humid. Hopefully next weekend I will get a start on it.
Until next time....